It was a great night. I caught up with my best friend from high school, the guy who introduced me to Rush’s music in 1985. The first Rush show I saw was in the spring of 1986, supporting the Power Windows album. As per my quick note above, the first half of this concert felt like old times. I loved the deep cuts from Power Windows, which is an album I still listen to often. It gets mixed reviews from the Rush faithful because of the heavy use of synthesizers, but I love it.

It sounds like they are playing two from two set lists, which the fantastic site Rush Is a Band calls (A) and (B), which differ in five songs. Last night being the second show of the tour, we got the “B” setlist. Having such a huge catalog of songs, it goes without saying that some classics (Limelight, Free Will, The Spirit of Radio) would be left off. This was also driven by the fact that the new album’s songs are so long, and they played so many of them, that it took up half the show. I'm not complaining, because the new stuff was great, but it was a little surprising to have several contiguous albums not be represented, as if Rush didn’t do anything interesting from 1977-1980 or 1992-2006.

The set design and the video graphics were very steampunk, so I imagine that, somewhere, pmbuko’s eyes were burning. Behind Geddy, there were four set pieces: a large gramophone type horn, a brain in a clear container, a set of Monty Pythonesque curly horns, and a functioning popcorn popper. Underneath were the words BASSY, BRAINY, HORNY, and CORNY. The appropriate word would light up depending on what song was being played. You can see it in this fan-uploaded pic, which also shows off Geddy's steampunk synthesizers.

Geddy announced the intermission with the explanation that at their advanced age, they were going off for blood transfusions. The second set was announced with another cool video segment in which the band were gnomes who annoyed and tormented a government worker who was there to talk to the Watchmaker. Yeah, it made that much sense to me also.

The second set featured an 8-piece string section that played on all songs, not just the many that they played from the new album, Clockwork Angels. Geddy noted that it was the first time in their nearly 40 years of touring that they’ve ever been joined onstage by other musicians.

Another twist was that instead of one long solo, Neil did three shorter drum solos. The whole band was flawless. They play as well as ever.

I skipped the $35 tshirts and got a $20 program. As usual, it’s full of fun.

All in all, a great night with a nice blend of the familiar and the fresh! Highly recommended.

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"The Universe is the game of the self, which plays hide and seek forever and ever" - Alan Watts

JP, thanks for the review. I have been following the Rush Is A Band site for years. I kind of chuckled after the first nights concert review as people were bitching about the set list. By the sounds of it, the Clockwork Angels music comes across really well in concert. I think it is probably Rush's strongest effort in years. I read somewhere that Neil Peart was going to mix up his drum solos this tour. I would prefer three mini solos scattered throughout the show instead of one 8-10 minute solo. Looking forward to seeing them roll through town next year. We should be thankful these guy's still tour and entertain the fans with 3 hour shows and no opening acts!

Well, I looked for tickets but they are either stupid expensive or in the rafters. I know it's a laughably low number for many of you, but I've seen them 6 times already. Plus - with our lovely home theaters - I really do enjoy watching video of live performance. So, you know, money.

I did compile a playlist of the setlist(s), though. And I've been listening to it today. I remember really liking "Middletown Dreams" when they toured that album (although the real live revelation was "Mystic Rhythms"). I'm surprised they are playing "Bravado" and also that they are playing all the Clockwork Angels songs contiguously.

They seem to have really enjoyed making the last couple albums, and they clearly love to tour.

I still have the "Live in Cleveland" show on my DVR from about a year ago. I might watch it again later today.

Saw Pink Martini (again!) at the Greek Theater. It's become something of a tradition to see them for my birthday as they seem to come to town every year around the same time. Great show as always. They performed a couple of new unreleased tunes (one was beautiful if rather sad).

As they often do, they brought out some legendary figures to do some songs with them.

Next up...81 year old Mamie Van Doren. She "sang" The Girl from Ipanema (changing it to the boy from Ipanema). It was nice to see these legends out there still performing, but I have to say, Mamie was a little scary. (see that photo on wikipedia? She still looks like that!)

The show ended with them inviting pretty much anyone who wanted to come up on stage while they performed Brazil. (Another P.M. tradition).

Got back late from Montreal last night. What a show. We spent the next three days touring the city to make it an equally awesome mini-vacation but it was hard to concentrate on being a tourist as my mind kept drifting back to the three hours of total Rush awesomeness.

I really enjoyed the set selection. It was made for Rush fans, not radio fans. Hats off for that! The visual show around the Clockwork Angels story was really well done. Adding in a string section for this portion of the concert really added additional depth and ambiance to the experience they were going for. Also it was really fun to watch the string performers enjoy themselves so much too. If I had known that modern rock culture would change enough that I could someday tour along with a band like Rush, I might not have scoffed at the idea of violin lessons as a child.

I don't even need to comment about the musicianship from the band. Everyone here knows how that went. They are truly masters at what they do together.

As an added bonus, the comedic short at intermission and at the very end of the concert had an accountant demanding to do an audit who was harassed and constantly misled by three elves who looked suspiciously like the band. One of my buddies at the concert is a partner in an accounting firm and this provided for a long string of running gags for the rest of the trip. Thank You Rush!

I had very high expectations for this concert and it surpassed them all.

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With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.